Episode 5 of the What Drives Us podcast is available for listening! This week Russell and I were joined by Tony Schaefer again, your friendly PriusChat moderator, to talk about recent green transportation news. Hosts: Danny Cooper & Russell Frost Guest: Tony Schaefer Episode #: 5 Time: 1:20 Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes Direct M4A Download Direct MP3 Download Topics include: Prius/Toyota Recall - again Prius resale values dropping Nissan Leaf gets picked up by Hertz Leaf to be built in US; Nissan gets $1.4B loan Bob Lutz coughs up more stupidity Leave us a voicemail with your question or topic and we'll try to get you on the air. Just call (575) 51-DRIVE. Become a "Fan" of What Drives Us on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/whatdrivesus
Great podcast! But could you show some considerations for us europeans? The podcast is published on our Friday evening. So we have to wait till the next commute to work, typically on Monday to enjoy listening to you while in our priusses. How about a Friday morning European edition? For example with talk about kilometers instead of miles?
Hm posted but I am not seeing the ironic smile I wanted to insert above. Let's add another one just to be sure
I do enjoy listening to the podcast. As to the unattended acceleration for episode 5 on the Prius, here is another article on that subject printed by the Los Angeles Times. In this case the driver survived, so it will be interesting how the court case comes out. Of course if they settle out of court we will never know what happened. Runaway ride kills Toyota love affair - latimes.com I guess they were under 65.
I disagree with the idea that CTS had any reason to fall on their swords. I don't think it has much to do with "American Jobs". I think the reason you haven't had either CTS fall on their swords and/or Toyota blame CTS has to do with 2 factors. #1 is Toyota maintaining a good relationship with a suplier. #2, when all this mess broke, CTS immediately stated that the pedals were produced to Toyota's standards. Toyota never questioned this, or countered in any way this statement. The Buck stops with Toyota. CTS didn't fall on their sword because there is no reason for them to fall on it. The ultimate approval of the product Toyota is accepting from the vendor is Toyota's to make, it appears CTS made the pedals to Toyota's standards and only in retrospect was it unfortunately discovered that under rare and specific conditions of wear and stress could they fail. The sword was only Toyota's to fall on, which they have. As an American I'm glad Toyota appears to plan to continue support American companies. I believe as far as a foreign automaker goes, Toyota has the highest or one of the highest degree's of American investment at all levels. I just think that particular issue has a little more to it then just Toyota's desire to save American jobs and avoid more negative publicity. It would have to come down to Toyota "proving" that CTS wasn't manufacturing the pedals to their standards, and since Toyota has made no move to do this, and not even suggested that it was possible, you can only surmise that indeed the faulty pedals were manufactured to Toyota's standards. I think the fact that Toyota has continued to maintain the relationship with CTS and even is having them continue to manufacturer parts for them is indicative that Toyota accepts responsibilty for the defect. In my opinion "Kudos" to Toyota for NOT hanging a supplier out to dry.
What happened to "What Drives Us"? I have been looking forward to the next one, but it doesn't seem to be there... Are you done with it?
There should be a new one very soon. If you're on facebook, you should be able to find it here => What Drives Us | Facebook It looks like the newest podcast is also posted on iTunes.
I see your link, but if you search iTunes, the latest episode is on February 18th, it has not posted correctly. The most recent podcast is not on iTunes..
For those of us who don't do farcebook or itunes, please post straightforward download links along with. thanx. . _H*
Episode 6 is up! Sorry for the delay in posting it. I was gone all weekend and didn't have a chance to yesterday. It should have been in iTunes since Friday. H - the direct download links are always on the page that gets linked to in the OP. hitechboy - Eventually we are going to move to a video podcast. We're still trying to get our feet under us on the audio, then we'll move on to video.
